Dreaming of Home (Long Road Home #20)

Prologue

One step at a time. Just one step at a time .

How often had I been saying that to myself? Months?

Fuck, I’d been saying something close to that since I was ten years old and Dad told me to sink or swim. Literally.

I pulled my half-filled duffel off the baggage carousel and grimaced. How absolutely shitty was this? I knew down to the pound how much it weighed. Scratch that. I knew down to the ounce. Fourteen pounds and ten ounces. My backpack weighed ten pounds and six ounces. Mike, my physical therapist, had weighed them both since I was only cleared to lift twenty-five pounds. I knew he was just making a point, but he was really close to getting a throat punch. Except for the fact he was bigger, faster and in much better shape, and I’d be on my ass in less than a second.

Then the bastard had the nerve to tell me not to buy a book or anything when I was at the airport, or I’d go over my weight limit.

What an asshole.

I hated this shit.

Meanwhile, Clay Alvers down at Fort Liberty in North Carolina was also being a major pain in my ass. We were recruited for Delta Force at the same time and eventually roomed together. He took care of everything when they didn’t know if I was going to live or die.

When they eventually figured out I was going to live and sent my ass to Walter Reed to be operated on, he managed all my finances and basically held my life together. But when I realized I’d never be able to go back to the teams, I told him to either give my shit away or throw it away, since I wasn’t going back to North Carolina.

But no.

Instead, the asshole ships me a key to a storage unit and a copy of a check that he’d made out to himself from my account. He’d put in the memo line of the check, management of large and disgruntled mammals.

That was one of the first things that’d made me smile since I’d realized just how fucked-up my back was. On the last mission I was on in a war-torn city in Eastern Europe, multiple bullet fragments had punctured my upper spine. The doctors kept telling me that with physical therapy and working with a doctor who specialized in pain management, I could lead a normal life. There would be discomfort and I wouldn’t have the same mobility as I used to, but it would be a normal life.

Great, that meant I could become a drugged-out insurance salesman.

Oh joy.

I accessed my airline app on my phone, hoping that I had gotten the earlier flight to Nashville, so I didn’t have a six-hour layover here in Atlanta, but no such luck.

I was stuck.

I went out onto the concourse to see if I could find one of those neck pillows that the guy in the seat beside me had been using on my last flight. He snored all the way from Dulles, so maybe it worked. It didn’t look like it weighed too much, so Mike wouldn’t have an aneurism if I bought one.

When I left the shop, I had four magazines, a bottle of water, a Butterfinger candy bar and one of those neck pillows. They only had pink, but at this point, I didn’t care. All that mattered was that maybe I wouldn’t have to take another one of those fucking pain pills.

I looked around to see if there was a restaurant or someplace I could sit down and grab a bite to eat when I got a text.

Demon from Hell: You better not have bought a book.

I looked down at my four magazines. Forbes, Bon Appétit, Popular Science and The Economist weighed far more than a paperback.

Me: Nope, no book.

Demon from Hell: No beer.

Me: So, you think I’ve lost brain cells now, huh? You think I’m going to mix alcohol and narcotics. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mike.

Demon from Hell: Toughen up. I’m texting cause I want you to meet a friend of mine.

I rolled my eyes.

Me: I don’t need one more person checking up on me.

Demon from Hell: The world doesn’t revolve around you, Kai. I’m serious. Head for the USO and check in on Blessing. She’s one of the best people you’re ever going to meet. Just make sure she’s doing okay.

Me: Blessing? What kind of name is that?

Demon from Hell: What kind of name is Kai? Go in gentle, will you? Give her a hug. Tell her it’s from me.

I squeezed the bridge of my nose.

Me: All right, but you owe me.

Demon from Hell: It’s the other way around, and once you pull your head out of your ass, you’ll know it.

Me: Gotta go.

I shoved my phone into my rucksack and headed upstairs to the mezzanine. The sad part was I had pulled my head out of my ass and I did know how much I owed Mike. After my last surgery, there was some kind of nerve connectivity issue with my right foot. The docs couldn’t figure out what had happened, so they couldn’t go cutting on me to fix it. They said PT was my only option.

In came Mike Kowalski. Former linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles. He’d gotten hit one too many times in the knee. Went back to college and graduated as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Ended up at Walter Reed hospital, and I ended up with him. He was a demon from hell. He was also a godsend. I ended up walking within three months. Riding a bike in five. But my back and neck were still issues. It was going to take a while before the docs would lift the medical restrictions. Hence, there I was, lifting twenty-five pounds of shit and some magazines and water, and my fluffy pink pillow.

I saw the sign for the USO and followed it until I got to the doors. Inside stood a woman anywhere between thirty-five to fifty-five staring at me with a wide smile.

“Well, come on in,” she said with a subtle Southern accent that soothed me immediately.

“Your name wouldn’t be Blessing, would it?” I asked.

She smiled brighter. God knew how that was possible. “Well, yes, it is.” Her forehead crinkled as she looked at me. “Have we met before?”

“Nope. I was just told by a mutual friend to ask for a woman named Blessing.”

“Isn’t that wonderful. Who’s our friend?”

“Mike Kowalski. Big guy, used to?—”

“Oh, you don’t have to tell me about him,” she laughed. “I’ve missed that man. Rarely do you run into a soul like his, and when you do, you treasure them.”

She got a faraway look on her face. Then she shook her head as if to clear it and bit her lip. “Is he still working at Walter Reed?”

I gave a stiff little nod. It was the best I could do.

“And you, did he take good care of you?”

“In that gentle way of his,” I sighed.

Blessing threw back her head and laughed. “Oh my. I’ll just bet.” She took a quick moment to look me up and down. “Gentle,” she chuckled again. “Just like your military training I assume,” she murmured.

She had me there. The special forces training was no joke. But there was something about wondering if one of your appendages would be paralyzed for the rest of your life that ate at you and was a worse mind fuck than the interrogation resistance training I’d gone through. At least until Mike had pulled me through to the other side.

“Sargeant?”

“Huh?”

Shit, I missed what she had been saying.

“Can I get you to sign into the book?”

Gingerly, I pulled my rucksack off my shoulder and dropped it to the floor, then I signed in. I pulled out my wallet to get her my ID and a well-worn picture fell out.

“I don’t need your ID,” Blessing said with a soft smile. She was looking at the picture.

“They’re darling. May I?”

I shrugged.

She picked up the picture. “Carrot tops, but your hair just has a bit of auburn in it now. How old were the two of you when this was taken?”

I shrugged again.

She turned it over.

“Brady and Grady, Jasper Creek, Tennessee. Hmmm, sounds like a nice place.” She handed me back my picture and I shoved the picture back into my wallet.

She looked down at my signature in the sign-in book and then back up at me. “You’re Kai now, huh?”

I didn’t know what to say, so I nodded.

“Kai, I know you think you’ve gone through the tough part, but you haven’t. Trust your gut, Kai. You’ll find some surprising allies if you’re willing to let them in. They can make all the difference in the world.”

Shit, did she have dreams, too? Or maybe this is just the beginning of dementia.

But I couldn’t shut her out. Mike was worried about her. Was it because of this? Was he worried that she was losing her mind? Damn . She was so sweet and welcoming. No wonder he was worried.

“Well, let me take you back to a place I like to call the library. There are a couple of others who still have awhile to wait. Some of them are like you. They’re injured and need some peace and quiet.”

She got out from behind the desk and took my arm. She definitely had that Southern charm I had always experienced in North Carolina. I just hated the fact that I had to give Mike bad news.

“Before we go, I have to do one last thing,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“Mike wanted me to give you a hug.”

“Well, isn’t that about the nicest thing that’s happened all week?”

I bent down and wrapped my arms around her. She had a delicate perfume, not overwhelming. Yeah. A really gracious lady. Mike was right.

I looked around ‘the library’ and saw three men and a woman.

“The recliner is open,” Blessing said. “That would probably be best for your back.” I put my rucksack beside it, then frowned at Blessing.

“I never said I had a back injury.”

“Didn’t you? Well, how else would I have known about it?” She patted my arm. “Just let Kate know if you need anything. She’s been here before and knows the lay of the land.”

As soon as I sat down, the pretty woman offered me a piece of candy.

“Don’t do it, man. That shit is a silent killer.” A brown-haired man said to me.

I shook my head at the woman. She popped one of the gummies in her mouth and squinted. They were obviously sour. I was glad I’d passed.

“So, where are you headed?” she asked.

“Tennessee. I have some things to do out there.”

Yeah, like find out if I’ve lost my damned mind.

I lifted the leg rest of the recliner and sighed in relief as some of the pressure was let off my back and neck.

“Man, I feel that to my bones,” a guy said in a New York accent. I watched as he tossed back either one or two pills from the bottle he was holding. “Anti-inflammatory pills only go so far,” he said as he looked at me.

“Truth,” I nodded stiffly.

I reached down to my rucksack and pulled out my pink neck pillow and placed it around my neck. I looked around the room. I saw each and every one of them struggling not to laugh.

“What? Pink’s my favorite color.”

I closed my eyes and started making a mental list of what I needed to do when I got to Nashville. My final destination was Jasper Creek. But first I needed to do some recon and prep work. I’d already procured some wheels, just needed to pick those up. American made, four-wheel-drive and manual transmission. What more could a man ask for?

I’d already checked birth records for twin boys in Tennessee with the first names Brady and Grady. I was stunned to find four sets of twins born the year before, the year of, and the year after I was born with the names Brady and Grady. I’d checked the years before and after, just in case dear old dad had forged my birth year as well as my name on my birth certificate.

It didn’t take much detective work. There were Grady and Brady Beaumont who were born in Gatlinburg, but their residence was Jasper Creek. A little more digging showed that Brady and Arthur Beaumont went missing when Brady was four years old. The missing persons case was still open.

I dug deeper and found that my mom, Rose Beaumont died when I was eighteen, and my brother Grady enlisted in the Marines.

So, I’d fly into Nashville, pick up my truck. Buy some clothes that would help me fit in a bit more, then look up some places online to stay in Jasper Creek, then get in my truck and drive.

I don’t know when I drifted off to sleep, but I did.

It was one of the two dreams that plagued me almost every night.

I was sitting on the bottom step using a big branch to hit the dirt. I liked seeing the clouds of dirt float up.

“You’re getting dirty. Mama wib be mad.”

He was sitting up on the red porch swing so his church pants don’t getted dirty. He always

minded Mama. “So?” I grinned over my shoulder at Grady.

Grady laughed. So did I. Mama always laughed too. This wasn’t a big bad. I never did big bads, just little bads. And anyway, our dad wasn’t around, so we were safe.

“Brady. Grady. Time to go,” Mama called from inside.

“I’m going,” a different voice said. I woke up. I was in Atlanta. The USO.

Kate was saying goodbye to all of us. She stopped at the door of the library where all of us injured had been camping out. She looked at me.

“Just remember whatever Blessing told you today. Do it. Don’t second-guess her. It will make your life so much easier.”

She tapped on the door and stared directly at me. “Do it,” she repeated. Then she was gone.

I pulled the tech magazine from my rucksack because I sure as hell didn’t want to go back to sleep. The last thing I needed to do was have a nightmare in front of everybody here. I got lost in all the new gadgets featured in the Mobile World Congress. After all, who doesn’t need a bendable Smartphone that you can wrap around your wrist?

I don’t know how much time went by before my non-bendable phone buzzed. All the other guys had left but me, and now I saw that my plane finally had worked out a crew, so it would board soon. I gathered up my stuff.

“Oh, I see you got word.”

I looked up to see Blessing smiling at me from the doorway to the library.

“I did. It looks like they’ll start the boarding process in about forty-five minutes.”

“Take some food to go. For those shorter flights, they have nothing but a bag of nuts or two little cookies.”

“I just might do that.”

I winced as I got up out of the chair. I really needed a pain pill, but for some reason I didn’t want to take one in front of Blessing, which was horseshit. It shouldn’t matter. Mike would kick my ass. He always said to stay in front of the pain. I pulled the prescription bottle out of my rucksack and shook my head when I saw Blessing holding out a bottle of water.

“Do you always know what’s going to happen before it happens?”

“I just have a habit of reading situations. Most times I read them accurately.” She shrugged as I took the bottle and popped the pill into my mouth.

“I hope you feel better by the time you board the plane,” she said.

“That makes two of us.” I paused. “Kate told us to do whatever you had to say, otherwise we would regret it.”

Blessing threw back her head and laughed. “I like that woman.”

“You told me that I should trust my gut and let people in, and it would make all the difference in the world. What does that even mean?”

She held out her arm. “Walk with me.”

I took her arm, and we walked down the hall to the front desk. A younger woman in a similar apron was talking to a Marine.

“Do you mind showing me that photo again?” Blessing asked.

I pulled out my wallet and gave her the tattered photo.

“Cute kids, Brady and Grady, huh?” She turned it over. “Jasper Creek. This is a good place. I feel it. I imagine that if a man is feeling aimless, he might find what he needs, even when he’s not looking for it.”

“That makes no sense. I am looking for something in Jasper Creek.”

I was getting frustrated.

“But Kai, is it the right thing?” She looked down at her watch. “You better hurry. You don’t want to miss your plane. Say hey to Mike for me.”

I couldn’t help it. I gave her another gentle hug. “I will. You take care.”

Now I was even more worried about what I’d have to tell Mike.